Ashley Oliver, Jo Teut, Sarah Cramer, and Cody Cook spent four days with other higher education professionals and two wonderful trainers learning about the Green Dot power-based personal violence prevention strategy.

Truly everyone on campus possesses the ability to save a life and to make a difference. Whether your actions and words are small or large, we all play a role in ensuring our community is safe and inclusive. Though we all have barriers, we must rely on each other to do “the right thing” and to stand up for injustices and wrongdoings. Each and every person on the campus MUST play a role in creating a culture of caring, respect, and dignity. -Cody

Attending the Green Dot Facilitator Training was transformative in the way I think about power-based violence on campus, facilitating learning opportunities, and my colleagues who are also passionate about this work. One phrase that has stuck with me is that no one has to do everything, but everyone must do something. -Jo

Love seeing photos of the work we are doing? Join us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!

In Memory

In the past month, we lost someone very dear to our community. According to his obituary, Stephen Rolfe Powell '74 was a truly inspirational professor and leader among artists from Centre College, where he founded the glass program, built two amazing hot working studios, worked with commercial funders and international glass experts, and created beauty every day, since 1983. He was the mentor and teacher of dozens of artists around the world, who carry on teaching, sculpting, blowing glass, and bringing various objects and ideas to life through dynamic and dedicated craft. Along with Che Rhodes '95, Steve created "Bang Bangy Bang," the glass installation in the Intercultural Suite that was dedicated during the last Homecoming celebration and can be seen above.

Title IX Corner

Happy Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month! The theme of this year’s SAAPM is Awareness to Action. Check out the RAINN website to learn more about SAAPM. Below are some of the events we have planned for this month:

• Monday April 1: The Centre Women’s Lacrosse team will host a milk and cookies delivery fundraiser for Ampersand 8:00p-11:00p. Many thanks to the Centre Women’s Lacrosse Team for their Green Dot game last week.
• Monday April 1: Ampersand Drop-In Space in the Presentation Screening Room of the Grace Doherty Library. 4:00p-5:00p.
• Saturday, April 6: Let’s Taco Bout Sex hosted by the Centre Feminist Alliance in the Warehouse.
• Monday, April 8: The SGA Forum (see more details below).
• Friday, April 12: Sister 2 Sister and ADPi are thrilled to announce that we are hosting the first ever “Girls Women Just Want to Have Fun” party and fundraiser in the Warehouse, 7:00p. This is a party planned by women with our expectations and needs in mind, with the goal of all attendees to have fun, feel safe, and support a wonderful cause. We plan to host this party with great music, friends out to have a good time, food, and a raffle! Donations will either go to Ampersand, Haven, or Center for Women and Families, which are three wonderful organizations that in their own way support women during some of the most trying times of their life. Whichever organization gets the most donations will receive all of the proceeds and make an incredible impact on the lives of Kentucky women.
• Tuesday, April 16: Take Back the Night, Warehouse, be on the lookout for a Cowan Banner and SPEAC on Instagram for more details. Staff and Faculty, refer to Alex Grove's email.
• Tuesday, April 23: SPEAC Open House in Olin 124, 7:30p-9:00p. Learn more on SPEAC's Instagram.
• Thursday, April 25: Denim Day is a global awareness-raising campaign to show intolerance for sexual violence. The campaign was originally triggered by a ruling of the Italian Supreme Court, in which a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that, since the victim was wearing tight jeans, she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. This will be the 20th year Denim Day is observed worldwide. Raise awareness with us by wearing jeans on this day.

Huge thank you to the Grace Doherty Library for their Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month book display. Please stop by the library to check out one of a wide variety of books related to sexual assault.

S/O to the new Green Dot facilitators. Stay on the lookout for a training date available to the campus community by sign-up.

To request a workshop for your organization, contact Sarah Cramer at sarah.cramer@centre.edu

Calendar

Want to see our events on your own calendar automatically? Join the Diversity Office Updates group and add us to your outlook calendar. Doing so will get you the latest updates on diversity events across campus. Check it out now to see all the below events and easily add them to your own calendar.

April 1st, Student Grief Information Session at 4:30p at Evans-Lively. Facts about grief: Grief is a natural response to losing something or someone that is important. Students may experience a variety of emotions, such as sadness or loneliness. Grief can be experienced in response to losing a loved one, end of a relationship, loss of a job, or big life changes such as chronic illness or moving to a new home.

April 1st, "Centre and Slavery: Understanding Our Past," 7:30p in Young 113 and Convocation. Dr. Tara Strauch and students from her 2018 class on the history of American slavery will lead a lecture and discussion on how Centre was intertwined with the system of slavery. As a college in a border state, Centre faculty and students had a wide variety of opinions about and involvement with the system. Dr. Strauch and her students spent time researching individuals at Centre throughout its early history and look forward to sharing the complicated and contradictory realities of our past.

April 2nd, and every Tuesday hereafter, 11:30a-1:00p, Beloved Community Lunches in CC 201. Drop in at any time and bring your lunch to connect with other members of the Centre and Danville community.

April 2nd, Gideon Alorwoyie and his Afrikania Performing Troupe Workshop. Workshop will be 11:20a in Newlin Hall and Performance is 7:00p in Newlin Hall. Both are Convocations. African Master Drummer Gideon Alorwoyie and his Afrikania Performing Troupe, consisting of approximately ten musicians, will perform traditional Ghanaian drumming and dance pieces. Mr. Alorwoyie originally taught at University of Ghana and was the master drummer with whom American composer Steve Reich studied prior to writing many of his most influential works. He is director of the African Percussion Ensemble at the University of North Texas, professor of music, high priest of the Yewe (that’s his title, midawo), and chief (or Torgbui) of his native region in Ghana. The percussive rhythms and forms Alorwoyie knows are not written down; they’ve been passed from generation to generation through practice and performance with such master drummers as himself. Before teaching at UNT, Alorwoyie was chief master drummer of the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, touring Europe, China, the former USSR, the Caribbean, South Korea and Hong Kong.

April 3rd, "Creating Community Through the Arts in Eastern Kentucky" with Dr. Joy Gritton, Associate Professor of Art History at Morehead State University. This Convocation starts at 7:00p in Newlin Hall. The pendulum of popular perception of Eastern Kentucky has long swung between a “strange land” and “peculiar people” characterized by isolation, violent feuds, moonshine (or drugs), and poverty, and misty mountain landscapes populated by self-reliant backwoods men and women with a rich history of weaving, quilting, woodworking, basketry, and home-grown music. Since the Progressive era the second stereotype has been proffered as a solution to the first. It was and is an unspoken imperative that any training initiatives or funding opportunities related to the arts must have an economic development component to be seriously considered. But in a place where people live surrounded by both beauty and hardship, the arts are being used to foster and express hope, healing, resilience, cooperation, empowerment, and pride on a daily basis. And while you can’t eat hope and pride may not pay the rent, it goes a long way toward building communities that are finding their way in a dominant society that seems at times indifferent to the many marginalized peoples of our country. This discussion will highlight diverse ways Eastern Kentuckians are using the arts to work toward a better future for themselves and their neighbors.

April 4th, "Environmental Writing for our Time" at 8:00p in Vahlkamp Theater, Convocation. Camille Dungy will be only the second poet (and creative writer) to offer the English Program's Bastian lecture, which will be on the topic of redefining nature poetry. Professor Dungy publishes poetry and non-fiction that emerges out of the intersection of ecology, culture, and race. She is editor of the groundbreaking anthology, Black Nature: Four Centuries of African-American Nature Poetry, and is also the author of five books of poems, most recently Trophic Cascade. Her first work of creative non-fiction, published earlier in 2017, is A Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dungy has received numerous awards and accolades, including two NAACP Image Award nominations, two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations, fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in both poetry and prose. She is currently a Professor in the English Department at Colorado State University.

April 5th, DSU is sponsoring Flame Fest, 9:00p-12:00a on the Campus Center Lawn. This event, cosponsored by SAC, will include food trucks, fireworks, music, games, and much, much more.

April 8th, from 7:00p-9:00p in Young 113, SGA will be hosting two forums, one with representatives from the Student Life Office, the Title IX team, the Department of Public Safety, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Senior Staff, and the other with key members of SGA. Students are encouraged to come ask questions and voice their opinions or concerns to these groups that are here to serve students and make Centre a better place for everyone.

April 9th, "A Round Table on Local Childcare and Early Childhood Education" at 7:00p at the Inter-County Energy Community Room, 1009 Hustonville Road, Danville. This event is sponsored by the Women's Network. In Boyle County, more than half our children who enter kindergarten lack basic skills they need to succeed. In response to this and the closure of a large childcare facility, the Danville-Boyle Early Childhood Alliance (DBECA) was formed. DBECA has studied the problem and made recommendations for the way forward. This roundtable will present the needs, recommendations for action and the work that lies ahead. Amy Longwill is Director of Community Impact at the Heart of Danville United Way; Patten Mahler is a Professor of Economics at Centre College; and Andrea Craft is Preschool Coordinator for Danville Independent Schools. All are welcome to come and join in the discussion on this key problem in our community.

April 9th, "Human Rights in Europe Today" at 7:30p in Young 113, Convocation. Dr. Marko Bosnjak, Judge on the European Court of Human Rights, will address the status of human rights in Europe today. Are they under threat? What role does the international community play in upholding human rights? What penalties should countries that violate the basic human rights of prisoners, the press, and political opponents face? Dr. Bosnjak will explore these themes using examples from the Court's recent decisions - explaining the role of the Court in upholding human rights, as well as the nature of the public discourse about human rights in Europe today.

April 10th, "Exhibiting Knowledge: Power, Creativity, and Aesthetic Experience in the Arts of Africa" James W. Barton RICE Symposium Lecture and Convocation at 7:00p in Vahlkamp Theater. Christine Mullen Kreamer is Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, where she has worked since 2000. In recognition of her outstanding achievements in the fields of art history and museum practice, Christine was named the Smithsonian Institution’s 2018 Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities. She is married to Ross G. Kreamer, class of 1976. Dr. Kreamer states, “One of the threads woven into my research and scholarly pursuits has been a passion for communicating through art-centered exhibitions and publications Africa’s contributions to the history of knowledge. Africa has often been left out of this history, overlooked or overshadowed by the privileging of Western systems of thought that continue to impact perceptions about the history and accomplishments of the continent. The arts can challenge those perceptions.”

April 12th, Dialogue on Diversity conference being held at Spalding University. The primary objective of the conference is to construct a space where participants can engage in thoughtful and instructive conversations about the relevance and role of diversity in the fields of business, education, media, health, politics, community engagement, and religion. Registration information can be found here. It's $25 for students and $75 for faculty/staff. If you are interested in attending and carpooling from Danville, contact Amanda DeWitt, or from Lexington, contact Jo Teut.

April 12th, Affrilachian Poetry Reading in Vahlkamp Theater from 7:30p-9:30p, including Danni Quintos, Frank X Walker, Bernard Clay, and Keith Wilson presenting their own work.

April 13th, Affrilachian Poetry Workshop, 10:30a-12:30p, Email Carrie Frey if interested in attending. Danni Quintos, Frank X Walker, Bernard Clay, and Keith Wilson will work with smallish groups to provide a workshop. Below are some of the workshop descriptions:

• Danni's workshop will be "LET ME HANDLE MY BUSINESS, DAMN" (after a Morgan Parker poem). With a focus on 'Identity and Place,' this workshop will focus on the works of female-identifying writers, especially writers of color. We will read, discuss and write after works that center around beauty, motherhood, societal expectations, and intersectionality and what it means to reject/embrace/wrestle with these aspects of our identity.
• Frank's workshop will be "#YouToo." The metoo and blacklivesmatter movements have motivated more and more citizens to find their voices. Artist/activist, frank x walker, will discuss voice and lead a writing workshop designed to help you find yours. Frank is from Danville, but a well-known poet. He actually coined the term "Affrilachian" and started the organization of Affrilachian Poets.

April 14th, RISE (Refugees Immigrants Speaking up for Equality) will be hosting its third Undocupeers Training from 11:30a-4:15p. This training will allow you to become a visible ally for the members of the undocumented community in order to help shape a positive statement about humanity of all people. The topics and information discussed in the training are meant to equip members of the community with the tools to be better informed about immigration issues and the other (lack of) protections the undocumented community has/is experiencing. If you would be interested and available, please fill the survey ASAP to reserve your spot!

April 17th, "The Past Is a Foreign Country: Ancient Native Cultures of Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region" Convocation at 7:00p in Young 113. In the context of Centre’s Bicentennial celebration, it is appropriate to acknowledge the diverse Native peoples who once occupied this region. Their story extends across the millennia. Before the appearance of European settlers, the ancient peoples of the Bluegrass left behind a rich archaeological record of their lifeways and technologies in their settlements and ritual sites. In this convocation, Archaeologist A. Gwynn Henderson of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey informs us about the ancient human past of the Bluegrass Region. In doing so, she raises awareness of the diversity of human culture in this area. Her presentation dispels the convenient myth of Kentucky as the unsettled “Dark and Bloody Ground” only transiently visited by hunters and raiders before Europeans arrived. It affirms the deep time depth of human occupation and modification of the Bluegrass environment, which began with the advent of the first Native people over 11,500 years ago.

April 20th, Color Run and Holi Festival is a Hindu festival celebrating the coming of spring, and STAND, ISA, and CentreFaith are coordinating this year's celebration to raise money for the Kovvur Community Health Center! At this festival, we will have traditional Indian music and dances and students explaining the significance it has to them and Indian society. Part of the tradition is ignoring traditional social structure for the day and throwing colored powder at everyone. We are planning on holding the festival on the campus lawn, and all participants will be given safety glasses and masks and there will not be any rough or physical contact. The color powder is cornstarch-based and most of the powder will wash out of all clothes, but it is recommended participants wear older clothing. Be on the look out for sign ups and more information about the celebration.

April 24th, Documentary and Dialogue: "I Come From" Convocation at 7:00p in Vahlkamp. Documentary Screening of the Film “I Come From.” This documentary is about Voices Inside, a program sponsored by Pioneer Playhouse at Northpoint Training Center, a medium-security prison located in Boyle County. The Voices Inside program provides playwriting workshops to “inmates drawn to self-expression through creative writing. The emphasis of these one-on-one workshops is to focus on the process of turning each inmate’s personal journey into a scripted, communicated narrative.” I Come From showcases the stories and the creative work of inmates in Kentucky correctional facilities. Robby Henson, the artistic director at the Pioneer Playhouse, conducts the Voices Inside program at Northpoint. He also directed, produced, and edited I Come From. Mr. Henson will be present after the viewing to speak about the documentary, the Voices Inside program, and to answer any questions.

May 1st, at 7:00p in Young 111, Study Abroad and Interfaith Dialogue. The Center for Global Citizenship and CentreFaith will be working together to create a program to talk about interfaith experiences during study abroad/away experiences. With around 85% of Centre students going abroad, many of us have had contact with different religious traditions (or variations of our our tradition) while abroad/away. Join us for an insightful discussion!

This calendar is meant to capture events on campus addressing issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity. It is not an exhaustive list. If you have events in upcoming months that you would like to see featured, please email them to Jo Teut at jo.teut@centre.edu prior to the 25th of each month.

That's all folx!